Prince Charles: I worry deeply that the planet is facing mass extinction

The Prince of Wales said he was "deeply worried" about the planet he would leave behind for Princes William and Harry as he spoke of the "depressing trajectory" of wildlife loss on Earth.

Introducing a WWF lecture at the Royal Society, the Prince said he was alarmed to realise that the world was on the brink of a sixth mass extinction and was entering a new geological age because of the actions of humans.

The Prince of Wales, who is president of WWF-UK said: "As a father and grandfather I worry deeply about the world we are leaving behind for our successors. We are rapidly destroying our means of survival.

"Clearly we are not living within the environmental limits of our plants. Populations of vertebrate species have declined by more than half from 1970. We are on a deeply depressing trajectory to witness the sixth global mass extinction in our planet.

"We are ushering in a new era. It's alarming to realise that after 4.5 billion years that a change in epoch has been due to the activities of just a single species."

Sir David Attenborough also warned that children born today would never experience such a variety of wildlife because of record levels of extinction.

The naturalist, 90, said: “In my lifetime I have seen something of the marvellous range of wild species with which we share the planet.

“But due to the changes which today afflict the world, no one born tomorrow will have the opportunity to see such variety. We must surely do all we can to protect what remains."

Watch | Attenborough at 90: Sir David's world travels in 60 seconds

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The warning comes a week after the latest Living Planet Report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) which warned the world is facing the biggest extinction of animals since the dinosaurs.

Estimates suggest that by 2020 populations of vertebrates will have fallen by 67 per cent since 1970.

Extinction rates are now running at one hundred times their natural level because of deforestation, hunting, pollution, overfishing and climate change.

The largest ever analysis of 14,152 populations of 3,706 species of vertebrates from around the world showed a 58 per cent fall in animals between 1970 and 2012 - with no sign that the average two per cent drop in numbers each year will slow.

Professor Johan Rockström, director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre​, said we were "putting our own future at risk".

“The last 10,000 years of unprecedented stability on Earth, during the Holocene, has enabled us to develop the modern world as we know it.

“The exponential journey of unsustainable world development over just the last 50 years, has pushed us into a new geological Epoch, the Anthropocene, where we as humans threaten the stability and resilience of the entire Earth system.

“We are pushing ourselves out of the Holocene, putting our own future on Earth at risk. What we, in this generation, do in the coming 50 years, will probably determine the outcome for humanity on Earth over the coming 10,000 years.”

Populations that have been impacted by human activity include African elephants in Tanzania, which have seen numbers crash due to poaching, maned wolves in Brazil, which are threatened by grasslands being turned into farmland and European eels, which have declined due to disease, over-fishing and changes to their river habitats.

Wildlife is also being hit by climate change, pollution and over-exploitation of natural resources, the report warned. By 2012, the equivalent of 1.6 Earths was needed to provide the resources and services humanity consumes each year.

The speakers warned that humanity is ushering in a new geological epoch to be created which recognises humanity’s impact on the planet. The International Union of Geological Sciences is currently deciding whether to approve the term Anthropocene to take over from the current Holocene.

Glyn Davies, the WWF-UK’s acting chief executive, said: “We have already seen the results of humanity’s impact on the environment as species decline, habitats vanish and our climate changes.

“But we are now entering uncharted territory, where humanity's impact on our planet will have dramatic consequences on its ability to sustain us.

“WWF has brought together some of the planet’s most respected voices to remind governments, businesses and individuals everywhere that they must act now to halt unsustainable consumption, fight climate change and protect and restore nature.”